Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics

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Utterance
(714 words)

Abstract

The utterance is the largest recognized prosodic unit, roughly equivalent to a sentence in syntax.

The utterance (υ) is the largest recognized unit of prosody (Nespor and Vogel 1986:221-248) and is usually bordered on either side by silence. Part of the syntax-phonology interface, it tends to correspond with the syntactic notion sentence (simple, complex, or compound), but often consists of less (Selkirk 1980; Nespor and Vogel 1986:221-223), as the beginning of Plato’s Crito (43a) illustrates. The dialogue begins with two u…

Cite this page
David Goldstein, “Utterance”, in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, General Editor: Georgios K. Giannakis. Consulted online on 30 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2214-448X_eagll_COM_00000362>
First published online: 2013



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